Susan Livingstone

Who is Susan Livingstone?

Susan Morrisey Livingstone is a former Acting U.S. Secretary of the Navy in the George W. Bush administration from January-February 2003. She was the first and is so far the only woman to become Secretary of the Navy in U.S. history. Livingstone played a role in the effort to end coercive and abusive interrogation tactics at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. At the time, as Under Secretary of the Navy, Livingstone oversaw a large management portfolio, which included lawyers in the Navy General Counsel's office and investigators at the Naval Criminal Investigative Service who raised concerns about the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.

Livingstone is a native of Carthage, Missouri and grew up in an Air Force family. She graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1968 with an A.B. degree and completed an M.A. in political science at the University of Montana in 1972. She also holds a graduate degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

Livingstone served at the Veterans Administration from 1981 to 1989 in a number of positions, including Associate Deputy Administrator for Logistics and the Associate Deputy Administrator for Management. Prior to her Executive Branch service, Livingstone worked for more than nine years in the Legislative branch on the personal staffs of both a Senator and two Congressmen.